diff --git a/changes/8950.general.rst b/changes/8950.general.rst
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..466db73740
--- /dev/null
+++ b/changes/8950.general.rst
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+Update minimum required version of crds to allow for "data release style" contexts.
diff --git a/pyproject.toml b/pyproject.toml
index b615cd49e6..155e2ea531 100644
--- a/pyproject.toml
+++ b/pyproject.toml
@@ -21,7 +21,7 @@ dependencies = [
     "asdf>=3.1.0,<4",
     "astropy>=5.3",
     "BayesicFitting>=3.0.1",
-    "crds>=11.17.14",
+    "crds>=12.0.3",
     "drizzle>=2.0.0",
     "gwcs>=0.21.0,<0.23.0",
     "numpy>=1.22,<2.0",